Two-Face
"Justice has two sides, like this coin. Innocent or Guilty. One side clean, the other side scarred. Chance is everything. Whether you're born or not, whether you're good or bad. Whether you live or die." Harvey Dent is a former district attorney turned criminal known as Two-Face. He was once Gotham City's beloved "White Knight" and ally of Batman, working with him to put criminals behind bars until he was horrifically scarred by having acid thrown on his face; this caused his troubled mind to split in two, transforming him into a dangerous criminal fixated on duality and the number two. Despite Batman's efforts to reform his former ally, Dent is consumed by his fixation on chance and his crimes are designed to prove out his diametric philosophy. History Early Life Harvey Dent's childhood consisted of hardship. Raised in a violent household, his father was an abusive alcoholic who repeatedly beat the boy and his mother, and often used a double-headed coin to give the child a "chance" to escape a beating. Dent spent much of his early life suffering from various mental issues, notably bipolar disorder, schizophenia, and paranoia. His hard work ethic, however, allowed him to rise up from his past; Harvey wanted to make a difference in Gotham City and became a lawyer, gaining close support from his wife after marrying shortly after, and rising as high as Gotham City's District Attorney. He was the youngest to become the city DA at the age of 26. White Knight of Gotham Dent was nicknamed "Apollo" by the media due to the fact that he was charming, good-looking, and seemingly untouchable. He was dedicated to his job of upholding law and order, and became one of the first supporters, allies, and even friends of Batman. When his partnership with Batman became known to the public, he gained the new monicker "White Knight," drawn in comparison to Batman who was Gotham's "Dark Knight." In fact, the two seemed so insepperable that at an early point, it was believed by some that Harvey was actually Batman, and that the White Knight/Dark Knight was just another part of the identity game. At the time of his job as a district attorney, the worst criminal threat in Gotham City was Carmine "The Roman" Falcone. He forged a triumvirate with Batman and Commissioner Gordon to bring the man down within the law, no matter what the cost. Despite his reputation as a heroic DA, Harvey had psychological issues even before his scarring, described as "headaches his wife found unpredictable, and scary sometimes". It was possible that these episodes could have been Harvey's bad side emerging, though it was unclear why Harvey had never sought treatment for these issues; any time his wife encouraged him to look for help, she was either ignored or told off, sometimes in increasingly dark ways. His slightly angrier temperament led Batman and Commissioner Gordon to develop a slight distrust for him, believing that it was slightly possible that he could be the vigilante dubbed "Holiday." It turned out too late that the issues stemmed from threats he constantly received in his position as DA and ally of Batman; despite having some of the best protection for him and his wife, Dent couldn't totally escape Gotham's darker sides, which slowly began to errode the barriers he put on his other personality, making it harder for him to cope and forcing him to take it out on his closest friends and most loved ones. Harvey Dent No More Sadly, these issues would culminate in a critical mental collapse during the fateful trial of Carmine Falcone. Dent had successfully captured and arrested the crime lord by taking advantage of the popular belief that Dent was Batman, forming a plan with the Dark Knight and Commissioner Gordon to fool him into lowering his guard. During the trial, Harvey would come to speak to Sal "Boss" Maroni, who was also arrested at some other point and was brought up for questioning the seemingly obvious association between the two. Maroni, believing Dent to be responsible for the death of his father, threw acid in his face in the middle of the trial, after which the courtroom erupted into chaos; a mob was assembled by the Falcone family to take down the triumverate, through which they targeted Dent during the trial since the mob couldn't get to Batman. According to police reports as well as thugs arrested on sight, Harvey Dent was actually able to put up a fight against the mob even while the acid was corroding half of his body. His face was horribly scarred on the left side, as well as his left hand and one half of his lucky coin before passing out from the strain in the courthouse. He was transported by ambulance to the nearest hospital even before the building was fully secured by police. Upon awakening alone at the hospital in the dead of night, seeing his damaged body and coin fractured his mind and causing him to suffer an intense mental breakdown that was heard almost through the entire wing. This triggered his transformation into a deranged criminal, who decided the fate of any situation by the use of his former lucky charm, now scarred on one side. He also ended up blaming Batman for his disfigurement, thinking Batman sold him out in order to continue his fight against crime. As a result, he also went from one of Batman's closest allies to one of his most dangerous enemies. Dent escaped from the hospital, descending into madness; he became obsessed with duality and opposites, and developed a second persona, the villainous Two-Face, to compliment the law & order obsessed Dent. Rise of Two-Face As Two-Face, his trademark was crimes involving the number two. His obsession even shows in his clothes, which are usually composed of two halves made out of very different materials. At all times, he carries a double-sided coin with one side defaced, which he constantly flips to make any choices. Two-Face flips the coin at critical junctures: The scarred side would usually result in a crime, but the clean side would allow Two-Face to do the right thing, such as returning his loot or refraining from a murder. After his first few encounters with Batman, Two-Face attempted to abandon all ties with his own past life, including his loving wife Gilda. This, however, proved too much for the good side of his personality, and he began attempting to visit Gilda, claiming he had regained his face through plastic surgery. Gilda, however, soon saw through the fabrication, and this unhinged Dent even more. Finally, he was apprehended by Batman, with the help of his partner, Robin. At a later point, the dark side of Two-Face would win over two years later when he finally murdered her in her own home. This event marked one of the grimest, cruelest moments in Harvey's criminal career. Appearance Upon his transformation into Two-Face, Harvey Dent acquired nasty burn scars across the entire left side of his face, hence his criminal name, as well as his left hand. The affected flesh is exposed red in color, with part of his bodily structure showing underneath such as bone and musculature; of particular to note is his face, from which he has completely lost the lips, cheek, part of his nose and ear, and eyelids on the left side. His hair was damaged, but not much was lost, simply bleached white; despite the damage to his mouth, Dent was quickly able to adapt his speech so that he could communicate relatively normally without any odd slurring due to only having half of his lips. Two Face 04.jpg|Two-Face in a White-Red suit Two Face 10.jpg|Two-Face in a White-Purple suit To fit with his dual-sided motif, Two-Face has had numerous outfits crafted for him, usually suits that display a set of colors on one side opposing another set of colors on the other side. His first attire seen, remaining his most common, is a simple suit that is black on the left side, white on the right; he has various other suits that he occasionally wears according to taste, situation, and events such as certain holidays. Initially allowing his gang members to wear whatever they wished, he has adopted official members of his empire to sport a similar split-colored attire to showcase their allegience to him. Personality Two-Face is not consistently evil; every time he contemplates a crime, he flips his two-headed coin. Only if the coin came up scratched-side did Two-Face go ahead and commit the crime, never questioning the result of the toss. This compulsion is a compromise between Dent's evil "Two-Face" personality and his former, law-abiding self. Over the years, he has been shown to rely on the coin to different degrees. Sometimes to decide whether or not to commit a crime, sometimes to decide whether or not to do something good, like save someone. He will even go out of his way to do good deeds if the coin mandates. Since Two-Face is hideously scarred on the left half of his face, he plays up to it with clothing that is differently styled and materialized on one side. His psychotic obsession with duality and his designing crimes around the number two often leads to his downfall. Harvey Dent Thought to be the "White Knight" of Gotham, Harvey Dent was selfless, moral and extremely dedicated to cleaning the crime in his city. His dedication to justice and unwavering sense of right and wrong was almost unfounded in politicians and officials by Gotham City standards, most of whom were flooded with corruption. Because of this many people believed that he was the Batman during the beginning of the vigilante's career. His fall from grace after being horrendously scarred by acid thanks to the Falcone and Maroni crime families, resulting in the loss of half his face and fracturing his psyche proved to not only be a blow for Gordon and Batman, but for the entire city. Despite it being years, and Two-Face has mostly absolved his old personality and identity, he shows traits of the man he used to be. Dent showed incredible determination, displayed when even while his face was being scarred by acid he still attempted to fight the Falcone's. He possesses some degree of compassion, such as considering giving his victims a chance of a fair trial instead of outright killing them. Because of his former job as a District Attorney he still has a sense of justice but has now become horribly warped. He claimed that his first set of banks he targeted for robbery were the ones the Mob had previously used to launder money, implying that at least some of his crimes were motivated by justice, albeit an extremely warped view of it. Two-Face Dent became more twisted and psychotic every year after his accident, as well less sympathetic and redeemable in the eyes of Batman, who used to be his close friend. However, he does continue to show pity for Dent despite his transformation. Dent's dependency on his two-sided coin leave him with scarce loyalties, should it come up bad for someone he would kill them without so much as a hesitation. He is capable of making decisions by himself, but can only do so under pressure or in a forced situation. He is much more reliant on the prospects of fate and destiny than calculated decisions; he would much prefer to follow the coin, blindly even if the decision was a poor one than genuine strategy. This unpredictably can also be considered an advantage as it leaves him hard to place while dealing with his enemies. His obsession with duality has become the insignia of his crime empire, to match his own scars he makes his men wear outfits similar to his appearance. This is also shown by the way he carries two guns, halved stolen loot among a partner in crime, and even cutting one of his men in two with a saw for getting his gang caught in an act of robbery and almost getting all of them arrested. Despite this cruelty, all of his men have unwavering respect and loyalty to Dent, if not fear for Two-Face. Two sides to every Coin Dent is not without his inner battles, at times the Harvey and Two-Face personas conflict each other. His chats with his fellow super criminal in Arkham Knight revealed he considered himself a better judge than Gotham's courts, which he considered a twisted waste of time, because "nothing burned more than injustice." He also lacked faith in God, mocking Azrael and Blackfire. If arrested after Scarecrow, he will talk to Batman solemnly, noting that "Bruce Wayne" was the true mask, while Batman was the real person; both Harvey and Two-Face understood it's not the face you're given, but the one you choose. Gallery Two Face 03.jpg|Shot of Two-Face Two Face 09.jpg|Two-Face Two Face 01.jpg|Artist's rendition of Two-Face Trivia *I believe in Harvey Dent. Category:Earth-1001 Inhabitant Category:Male Category:Evil Category:Characters Category:Bad